The Say Hey Kid and the Crabbers

Abstract

ting title, led the New York Giants to the World Series, and was the league’s Most Valuable Player, Willie Mays traveled south to play winter ball for the Santurce Cangrejeros (Crabbers) of the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League. The winter league season began in early October, running through February and culminating with the Caribbean Series in Caracas, Venezuela. I was eleven years old at the time, playing Little League for the Rotary Club in San Juan, and Willie was playing for my hometown team. A childhood image indelibly imprinted in my mind is walking into Sixto Escobar Stadium behind home plate into the splendor of sunlight and green grass and seeing Willie Mays at bat, wearing number 24. The cheers and groans of the crowd seemed deafening as the ball hit the catcher’s mitt, Willie striking out on a high fastball for the last out of the inning. I recall little else of Willie’s winter league season, other than a vague recollection of how he led the Santurce squad to the league and San Juan city championships (Santurce and San Juan were the two clubs that played in the capital city) and then on to victory at the Caribbean Series. So this image has swirled around in my mind for all these years, even prompting me several years ago to check out a card show in upstate New York where Willie was signing. I was further driven to validate this childhood image by doing research on that 1954 –55 winter league season. For this, I turned to the Library of Congress for perusal on microfiche of San Juan’s Spanish-language dailies El Mundo (The World) and El Imparcial (The Impartial). And what a revelation this was! I came to learn about the controversies surrounding bringing Willie to the island, the ensuing rivalry between Willie and his Santurce teammate and rising star Roberto Clemente, and the shoving match involving Willie and his Giant teammate Ruben Gomez. The Say Hey Kid and the Crabbers